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Friday, November 28, 2014

Hi Everyone, it's been a long time since I've been around the blogging block. But I'm starting this month and the new year in style with a brand new reading group... I present The Reading Lounge for book enthusiasts alike.

I've recently started a teen book club at work which starts in Jan, but my passions although lies in my job is also lies in my blog. I've found that there is an incredible book community online through Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr, so I've decided to create an online book club.

It will be a small knit group of 5/6 members, I have a couple interested already as well as myself (obviously hehe)! Every month we will choose a book through a poll, it can be a choice of ARC, TBR or even a LIBRARY BOOK. I have created a Twitter handle (@RLBookGroup) and a Goodreads group as well, where we will also talk about the books there as well as having a chat every month about the book, through Goodreads and/or Twitter.

This will begin in Jan 2015! New Year. New Group!!!

So if you are interested at all then leave your link in the linky below. It helps for me to be organised as well. Once the linky is closed I will contact you through my blog email neverjudgeabookbyitscovers {at} gmail {dot} com and to see if your still interested and then together we can get this awesome book group under way.

Friday, November 14, 2014

Hey Everyone, hope y'all enjoying Sci-Fi month! I know I haven't been around the blogosphere very much, but I'm hoping that is going to change this week. I intend to have a review up too, as I haven't done very many of those of late. Hope you enjoy today's post...

So today, is more an admiration of fiction turning into real life, and when I say real life, I mean when you picture what your heart desires in a book and then see it on screen, doesn't your mind have an over reactive imagination. I thought I would share, my swoony sci-fi book boyfriends, that not only been on-screen but also have film being released as soon as next week and then in spring 2015. Can you guess who I'm fictionally in love with!?

"I want to be brave, and selfless, and smart, and kind, and honest!" - Divergent, the movie.

"Becoming fearless isn't the point. That's impossible. It's learning how to control your fear, and how to be free from it.” - Divergent, the book!

Well, if I'm honest he will always be my ultimate book boyfriend, from the first moment I met him in Divergent. After watching the film well, lets say quite a few times, they found the perfect actor for him. As you all know the Exclusive Teaser Trailer of Insurgent came out yesterday,,, did you see? If you did or didn't then, here it is!?

My first thought was... I need to read this book again! I can't seem to remember where this was. Plus it has been a long time since I've read it! What were your first thoughts!?So there you have it, my Sci-Fi Book Boyfriend, do you have one? I'd love to know...

Sunday, November 09, 2014

As part of Sci-Fi November I have the lovely Amy Ewing discussing her debut YA novel, The Jewel. I reviewed this back earlier this year and I have to say it's one of my favourite dystopian books I've read in a while. I can't (literally can't) wait for the sequel

You may have heard mixed reviews about this book and I would recommend it. It's unique taste of world building and you may society a little hard to accept, so Amy has very kindly written a guest post about the beauty vs. the brutality of the novel. I also have a Giveaway at the end for 2 copies of the novel. But first here is a little more about the book.

The Jewel is a shocking and compelling new YA series from debut author, Amy Ewing.

Sold for six million diamantes, Violet is now Surrogate of the House of the Lake in the centre of the Lone City, the Jewel. Her sole purpose is to produce a healthy heir for the Duchess – a woman Violet fears and despises.

Violet is trapped in a living death, her name and body no longer her own. She fights to hold on to her own identity and sanity, uncertain of the fate of her friends, isolated and at the mercy of the Duchess.

The Handmaid's Tale meets The Other Boleyn Girl in a world where beauty and brutality collide.

'The beauty vs the brutality
of the Jewel’. So the beauty of society with the glamour, riches and balls of
the Jewel against the extreme and somewhat extreme aspects like surrogacy,
values of one's individualism within the Jewel.

Here’s the thing: I love my stories with a
heaping measure of darkness. I think it probably comes from my love of Roald
Dahl as a child—all of his stories are so deliciously dark and twisted. So I
knew setting out to write The Jewel
that I wanted it to have a glittering exterior with a very brutal underbelly.
Like picking up a precious stone and finding maggots underneath.

I also am a huge fan of BBC period dramas—Pride and Prejudice, North and South, and Downton Abbey. Downton Abbey inspired the aesthetic for the Jewel. I knew I wanted
it to have a turn-of-the-century feel. The glamour, the parties, the
dresses…all these captivated me. I did a lot of research on palaces and gowns.
The royalty is based on the pre-revolutionary France, when the wealth gap was
so outrageous—I felt that sort of setting was exactly what this book needed.

So then it came down to combining these
elements, which was really just so much fun. It is not an accident that,
throughout the story, Violet is confronted with abuse, humiliation, and
degradation, only to be enthralled again and again by the overwhelming beauty
that surrounds her. I found this dynamic to be fascinating. Pretty things are
supposed to be pretty. But when you have these beautiful woman in gorgeous ball
gowns talking about teenage girls as if they are property, it’s so jarring.
They strip women of their identity, they use their bodies and feel no remorse,
no pity. And the best way to highlight how horrible it all is was to really
make the Jewel and rich, luscious place. So many times writing this book I
found myself wanting to live in the Jewel, only to remind myself that, no, it’s
awful. The royalty are even horrible to each other. It’s that classic situation
of, ‘Look at everything you have and yet you still want more.’ Their abject
greed got to the point where they literally made trafficking people legal.

But like I said, there is something so
appealing about its beauty. I loved creating those palaces, and all the
delicious food, and the gardens and topiaries. I hope readers get swept up in
all the glamour like I did, only to remind themselves, again and again, like
Violet, that it does not matter what the outside looks like. It’s what is in
our hearts and minds that really counts.

She grew up in a small town outside Boston, where her librarian mother instilled a deep love of reading at a young age. Amy moved to New York City in 2000 to study theater at New York University. Unfortunately, her acting career didn’t quite pan out. She worked in restaurants, as an administrative assistant, a nanny, and a sales representative for a wine distributor before the lack of creativity in her life drove her to begin writing.

Amy received her MFA in Creative Writing for Children from The New School, where she was lucky enough to meet a fabulous community of YA writers who keep her sane on a daily basis. She lives in Harlem, where she spends her days writing, eating cheese, and occasionally binge watching The Vampire Diaries.

Monday, November 03, 2014

Sci-Fi November is well and truly back. After doing it last year through the lovely Rinn from Rinn Reads, Sci-Fi November has a new home but with new members to the mix and this time it's going to be even BIGGER! I've been planning this for a long while, and whilst I'm a little late with the intro post I can't wait to read and fangirl over Sci-Fi.

Me and Sci-Fi

When it comes to reading Sci-Fi I can be in a very picky mood, but recently, I've come into to some fabulous novels this year such as The Jewel by Amy Ewing and Tempest by Julie Cross. Seems so little, but I have to be really gripped in order to enjoy them. I guess you could say its a slippery genre with me. But TV and Film however, is another thing entirely, we have had some awesome films this year as well as TV shows; Divergent, The Maze Runner, The 100 and Big Bang Theory (obviously). I have also been introduced to many classics this year for the first time, Alien (s),Terminator (s) and Predator (s).

Let the Fun begin...

As part of Sci-Fi Month I'm also taking part in Dana's (The Nerdy Journalist) Sci-Fi Read-along. which is taking place throughout the whole of November which is awesome:

My goal for this month is 3...it's a safe bet as I'm pretty busy this month sadly. But if I can beat it then I'd like to read 5 if I can! Sadly, I won't be able to start any books until next week *sighs*

Hi I'm Emma and I'm a 20- something year old bookworm. A Secondary School Librarian by day, introducing young readers to the wonder of the literary world. A Reader/blogger by night, reading my favourites including Holly Bourne, J.K. Rowling, Richelle Mead, Sarah J.Maas, Veronica Roth, the list in endless. Also discovering new authors everyday. I'm also a Costa Addict, fellow Spinster and a romantic too!

Please do read the ramblings of all the books I discover in my little corner of the internet. Feel free to say hi to me on Twitter and Instagram too below.

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